January 9, 2007 > Daisy the lost terrier shows up 2,000 kilometers from home

Daisy the lost terrier shows up 2,000 kilometers from home

By AP Wire Service

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP), Jan 05 _ Seven months after disappearing from her yard in the western state of Colorado, a rat terrier named Daisy turned up in Knoxville, Tennessee, some 1,300 miles (2,000 kilometers) away.

Thanks to the efforts of Tracie Crass, who found 2-year-old Daisy wandering outside her home in the southern city of Knoxville, the terrier got an airplane ride home.

Crass spotted Daisy on her sidewalk on Christmas night and assumed the 12-pound (5.4 kilogram) dog had slipped out of its home during holiday festivities. She took the pooch onto her porch and waited for its owner to come looking for it.

When no one showed up by the next day, Crass telephoned the number on Daisy's rabies inoculation tag. She reached Daisy's veterinarian, who contacted Daisy's owner _ Vonda Lundstrom of Aurora, Colorado.

``The kindness of people gives you a reason to believe,'' Lundstrom said. ``It's the best Christmas present.''

A cell phone photograph of Daisy sent to Crass confirmed it was the same little dog that dug a hole under the fence at Lundstrom's home in April and disappeared.

With help from Knoxville's Young-Williams Animal Center, Daisy flew home on Wednesday.

The reunion at Denver International Airport was memorable. ``She licked me. She loved on me,'' Lundstrom said. ``I have my baby back, that's for sure.''

Lundstrom has no ties to Knoxville and she assumes somebody stole Daisy. She said she has since filled in the hole under her fence.

``I'm going to do everything in my power to see that it doesn't happen again,'' she said.